What a voice. Sam’s delivery on the former track, superficially a party song, hints at submerged tragedy, while the latter re-works Sam’s gospel roots into what is essentially a one-line mantra-song (cf. The Replacements’ “Unsatisfied” for another soulful example). To listen to the full best-of comp is to be in awe of the complexity inside such simple songs.

One response to ““It might be one o’clock or it might be three/time don’t mean that much to me””

Wow! Now there’s a man who’s passionate about his Sam! It’s good to see that kind of love still exists for a truly unique artist.

I’m Sam’s great-nephew and the author of “Our Uncle Sam: The Sam Cooke Story From His Family’s Perspective” (www.OurUncleSam.com). In observance of his 77th birthday, I’m answering Sam Cooke questions on a worldwide teleseminar at http://www.AskaSamCookeQuestion.com. I hope you and your fellow “Cookies” can join me.